Saturday, December 31, 2011

Little Miss came home from winter Girl Scout camp, and since it's New Year's Eve tonight and I work the closing shift, I made a hot meal for lunch.

Over the summer I froze some shredded zucchini, and today I retrieved a pack of about 3.5 cups. Once thawed and drained of excess moisture, the zucchini yields about two cups.

The zucchini cakes are a variation of the crabbi-less cakes in Deidre Imus' Imus Ranch Cookbook. Today I made a use-up-the-leftover-Christmas-cheese version.

I started with 1.5 cups of cornflake crumbs, probably about 1.5 cups of various cubed cheese that I broke into tiny shreds (Colby jack, Gouda, and tomato laughing cow). For seasonings, I added about 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning, 1 teaspoon lemon Dijon mustard, 1 tablespoon ranch dressing, 1 tablespoon mayo, and 1/2 teaspoon low sodium soy sauce. Add an egg, shape into patties and fry about five minutes on each side being careful not to let the cheese stick to the pan.

I made little steaks with a brandy cream sauce.

Both of these (the zucchini cakes and the steak in brandy cream sauce) I've blogged about before. They are family favorites.

Thursday, December 29, 2011

I received a phone call from Target today at 10:20 asking me to cashier from 10:30 to 2:30. I made it there by 10:48 and spent the day running back and forth between lane 12 and making pizzas at the café.

Monday, December 26, 2011

I asked for a SodaStream for Christmas. My mother-in-law came through.

Years ago I started diluting my daughter's juice with seltzer as a refreshing summer treat and it gets to the point where I can go through a liter of "bubbles" a day.

What complicates this is the fact that only Wegmans has good bubbles. The brand of bubbles at Giant go flat a day after you open them and Target only has flavored bubbles which are more expensive than plain and often have artificial sweeteners.

We made our first two liters last night-- and prepared juice with bubbles for her and flavored water for me (with one of the sample flavors).

I drank a liter plus of bubbles and got up four times during the night to use the bathroom.

The SodaStream Genesis is simple to use, does not require electricity, and is a slender machine. What freaks me out is that the bottles are not only not dishwasher safe, but they can't be washed in hot water/water hotter then 120 degrees.

They also suggest carbonating the water, chilling it and then adding soda syrup directly to the bottle-- I'd be afraid that would taint the bottle with flavor.

Cleaning supplies:
- Up and Up dish detergent (TB= Target brand) 2 @ $3.44 each
- Up and Up dryer sheets (TB) $3.99
- Up and Up fabric softener (TB) $3.24
- Up and Up laundry detergent (TB) the one that does 96 or 98 loads... $11.49
Minus a $2 coupon

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Had to go to Forks Mediterranean Deli. Read this passage in my book and had the worst *need* for lamb shawarma swimming in harissa: "He ate couscous from a big clay bowl... He poured harissa sauce and we ate with our fingers." (From Ted Morgan's My Battle of Algiers.)

So I bought 3 gigantic lamb shawarma with 2 packs of large zaatar bread, 2 packs of homemade zaatar bread (of which daughter ate one immediately), one bottle olive oil, one side of harissa, one bag of dried strawberries, one bag dried blueberries and a nice container of majhool dates.

Okay... One hour later. I cook by smell, I can't eat something if it smells bad. And this smells putrid.

I upped the chili powder, added a pinch of Indian chili powder, garlic powder, minced garlic and paprika. I tasted a piece of the turkey and it was edible- just smelled gross.

After the seasoning melded in the crock pot for a couple hours, my mother-in-law and other family members commented that it smelled delicious. My husband went shopping, and the soup evaporated into a pâté, or so he described it.

He filled tortillas with turkey and the leftover soup and they were FABULOUS!

About Me

I've been writing professionally since 1991 for a variety of weekly and daily newspapers. I've written on every topic imaginable from politics to education, prostate cancer to concrete houses. I am president of the board of trustees at my local library and 2008-09 and 2010-11 president of the Greater Lehigh Valley Writers Group.
If that's not enough, I am currently querying agents for my sexy paranormal trilogy based in the world of high fashion. And I'm working on a second bachelor's degree (in International Affairs), with hopes of a masters degree in some sort of French studies after that.